It’s the night before the start of our 7th SMU Steel Summit Conference in Atlanta. We are prepared and ready to go, but our thoughts and prayers are with those trapped in Houston and the surrounding communities in Texas. There are a great many people registered for our conference who are coming from the areas […]
There are 307 companies registered to attend this year’s SMU Steel Summit Conference which begins next Monday. The conference is SOLD OUT and we apologize to the procrastinators out there as we can no longer accept any new registrations. The companies registered are listed below. Those with a (*) next to the company name means […]
Today, 25 steel mills and related companies, as well as the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) and Steel Manufacturers Association (SMA), sent a letter to President Trump asking that he act on Section 232 and stop foreign steel from damaging the domestic steel industry. According to the letter, 30 percent of the apparent supply […]
I am now in Atlanta and the workload and my focus, and that of Ray Culley, Brett Linton and Diana, are all on organizing every minute of the SMU Steel Market Update program, which begins at 2 PM ET on Monday. There are always a few hiccups along the way… something to make your day […]
Last week, the flat rolled and plate steel mills announced price increases. Steel Market Update has seen prices rise in the mill spot markets (not in the service center spot markets) by $10 to $20 per ton. We are hearing from steel buyers (and a couple of mills) that the number of spot orders have […]
In Steel Market Update’s (SMU) latest flat rolled steel market analysis, manufacturing companies and steel service centers are sending mixed messages regarding how flat rolled steel distributors are treating their spot end customers. Twenty-one percent of the manufacturing companies responding to last week’s flat rolled steel market trends questionnaire reported service centers were lowering prices, […]
I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. We are trying to accommodate everyone who wants to attend our 2017 SMU Steel Summit Conference even though we are technically sold out. We did manage to loosen up a few seats and those were gobbled up the moment we let people know they were […]
For the first time since Steel Market Update began hosting the SMU Steel Summit Conferences, we have officially sold out the August 28-30, 2017 Conference. This year’s conference, which is our 7th, will be the best attended as we host more than 600 manufacturing, steel service centers, steel mills, trading companies and toll processors, as […]
During the week of Aug. 14, 2017, the U.S. steel mills advised their flat rolled and steel plate customers of their intention to increase spot prices on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume steels, as well as plate. The flat rolled mills announced $30 per ton base price increases on new spot business. For […]
The three steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update reporting this past week saw prices differently. Steel Market Update, which gathered its pricing information on Monday through Wednesday of this past week, found prices to be lower on all flat rolled products and plate. Platts, on the other hand, reported hot rolled prices higher late […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Service Center Inventories Apparent Excess/Deficit forecast provided last month showed that the deficit in inventories being held by flat rolled distributors would shrink. We have worked with the MSCI carbon flat rolled shipment and inventory data and our model indicates the deficit did indeed shrink and is very close to […]
For the first time since Steel Market Update began hosting the SMU Steel Summit Conferences, we have officially sold out the August 28-30, 2017 Conference. This year’s conference, which is our 7th, will be the best attended as we host more than 600 manufacturing, steel service centers, steel mills, trading companies and toll processors as […]
Tomorrow is the full eclipse of the sun in many areas of the country. Where I live in southern Florida, the sun will be 81 percent covered. About four hours drive north of here will be in the high 90 percent range. If you are lucky enough to be in an area where a total […]
The response to this year’s SMU Steel Summit Conference has been overwhelming. So much so that we will close registrations as of the end of business on Friday, Aug. 18. As of Thursday afternoon, we had less than 5 seats remaining to be sold before we reached a standing room only situation. The conference will […]
The number of U.S.-based flat rolled steel mills announcing price increases on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume has reached six. On Tuesday of this week, Nucor Sheet Mill Group became the first flat rolled steel mill to raise transaction pricing on spot flat rolled steel. The Nucor increase was for a “minimum” of […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released the latest license data for foreign steel imports for the month of August. Beginning in March 2017, imports have exceeded 3.0 million tons, perhaps peaking in June at just shy of 4.0 million tons. The expectation has been for import levels to drop due to concerns about the Section […]
The response to this year’s SMU Steel Summit Conference has been overwhelming. So much so that we will close registrations as of the end of business on Friday, Aug. 18. As of Thursday morning, we had less than 10 seats remaining to be sold before we reached a standing room only situation. The conference will […]
Flat rolled lead times, the amount of time it takes for the steel mills to produce an order if placed today, have flattened out and are essentially unchanged over the past few months, according to data collected by Steel Market Update from manufacturers and steel service centers earlier this week. On Monday, Steel Market Update […]
I asked trade attorney Lewis Leibowitz recently to look into the requests for reviews of the antidumping and countervailing duties on CORE (corrosion resistant steel) and cold rolled. The U.S. Department of Commerce published notices on July 3, 2017, asking any of the countries/companies affected if they wished to have a one-year review of the […]
Flat rolled steel prices slipped over the past week just as the domestic steel mills began to announce new price increases. Were the increases in reaction to the slippage? Were they in response to new higher scrap costs for August delivery? Most likely, it was a combination of both. We found the spread widening on […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) Steel Summit Conference registrations have been much stronger than ever anticipated, and we are reaching a threshold where we cannot physically put more people into the conference meeting area. We are still taking registrations, but we are literally within 20 people of this steel conference being totally sold out. Based on […]
Four flat rolled steel mills, Nucor, NLMK USA, California Steel Industries (CSI) and ArcelorMittal USA, announced spot price increases today on all flat rolled steels produced at each mill. The Nucor Sheet Mill Group, which handles flat rolled steel products, announced a minimum of $30 per ton ($1.50/cwt) price increase on hot rolled, cold rolled […]
Based on the Metals Service Center Institute’s (MSCI) July metals activity report, carbon flat rolled inventories rose in July while the daily shipment rate dropped resulting in an increase in the number of months’ supply being held at flat rolled steel service centers. Total Steel Shipments Total shipments of all steel products equaled 2,960,700 net […]
The Nucor Sheet Mill Group, which handles flat rolled products, announced a minimum of $30 per ton ($1.50/cwt) price increase on hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized steel products. The increases are to go in effect immediately, according to the letter emailed to the Nucor customer base this afternoon.
The following steel mills are registered to attend this year’s SMU Steel Summit Conference at the end of this month: ArcelorMittal Mexico, ArcelorMittal Dofasco, ArcelorMittal/Nippon Sumitomo Calvert, Ternium USA, Ternium Mexico, NLMK USA, Nucor, Nucor Mexico, Nucor Canada, Kandil Steel (Egypt), California Steel Industries, AK Steel, CSN USA, North Star BlueScope, Steel Dynamics Inc., The […]
As was mentioned earlier in tonight’s newsletter, our 2017 SMU Steel Summit Conference will be a sell-out this year and the question really is what day this week will we close registrations? I am both surprised and humbled by the response we have gotten to this year’s event. Our team works very hard to put […]
Based on the steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update (SMU), there were some very minor changes to hot rolled and cold rolled prices this past week, while coated products were unchanged and plate products fell. Both Platts and SMU had hot rolled falling by $5 per ton with both indexes reporting the HRC average […]
The 2017 SMU Steel Summit Conference Events App is now available for all attendees, sponsors and exhibitors to download and use. The App is where you find all the most up-to-date information about the conference, what you work from to network with other attendees, and what you will use to get the speaker presentations after […]
I was advised late on Friday afternoon that we should expect a Nucor price increase early next week. With scrap prices firming $10 to $30 per ton our expectation is for the increase to be $25-$30 per ton. Then the question will be will the industry support another increase after tepid (at best) support for […]
One of the reasons Steel Market Update has constant contact with steel buyers and steel mills is because we are aware that pricing momentum can change on a rumor or a belief that supply or demand is shifting. We are seeing market sentiment being impacted by Section 232. At the same time, scrap prices are […]